Saturday, February 14, 2004
Friday, February 13, 2004
Personal Success
You know your blog has reached world famous status when it is found in the search results for the following search terms:
1. Will mint dresses wash the bridesmaids out?
2. wedding & miako
3. the longest bride in the whole world
I also, as a service to the public, offer the following answers to these search queries:
1. Don't make your bridesmaids wear mint green. They will harbour a strong disdain for the dresses, and this disdain could transfer onto you.
2. Who is this "Miako"? People are always looking for her. I am not Miako. My camp name is Mikao.
3. What?!?!?! Is English your first language?
I hope this has been helpful.
Thursday, February 12, 2004
Country Music Haunts Me
When I was a child, growing up in the wilds of northern Saskatchewan and the flat plains of southern Manitoba, listening to country music was pretty much a given, albeit not by my choice.
Three times, when I was between the ages of 8 and 15, my family made the two or three day trip across the Prairies to British Columbia to visit my Dad's family. The music of choice (chosen by my parents) on these trips (all the way there and all the way back) consisted of a free cassette tape that the Ford Motor Company of Canada gave out with all of it’s 1986 vehicles of 1985’s greatest hits (including such classics as Maneater), ABBA's The Singles, The Judds, and Kenny Rogers.
To this day I can still sing along word-for-word with Kenny Rogers' The Gambler, and I know all the songs on The Judds' Number One Hits. Someday perhaps this will come in handy, you know, if I'm on Jeopardy and there's an 80s country music category, but I doubt it.
My older sister was a bit of a country music fan in high school, but she didn't listen to music very much so it wasn't too bad while she was still living at home.
However, she chose to go to cowboy college where everyone listened to country music and took country line dancing lessons. She wore cowboy shirts and some weird kind of shoes that cowgirls wear (or so I was informed). She got a huge belt buckle from her boyfriend and wore it all the time.
When my sister came home at Christmas and on breaks, she would either a) listen to country music on the stereo in the kitchen and sing along, or b) listen to country music on her walkman and sing along. I couldn’t decide which was worse, listening to her and the country singer, or just listening to her trying to sound like the country singer.
My current roommate Jodi is a country music lover. I didn't really notice it much at first at the beginning of the year, but lately she's been listening to more and more. I think this is partly due to two factors, a) our other roommate listens to terrible Bruce Cockburn, and b) I’ve been listening to a little too much John Mayer lately.
Jodi listens to a radio station called Country 100, "Southern Saskatchewan's Best Country!" I guess this is understandable since she's going to be a farmer's wife and drive tractors some day. But, I digress. Pretty much all radio stations sound the same (although the music is different depending on the type of station it is), have similar gimmicks, commercials, etc. But what drives me crazy about Country 100 is the fact that 99% of the time when they announce their station name, they say something about it sounding great in "crystal clear FM stereo." This drives me insane. Who doesn't know they're listening to FM radio? Does anyone listen to AM radio anymore anyways? Who listens to fuzzy FM stereo? If you quit saying all this junk about it being in FM stereo then you could play more country music (for the country music lovers out there), or more paid advertising, for Pete's sake (Pete in this instance being the station owner who benefits from more advertising being sold).
This morning when I woke up to the sounds of Jodi getting ready for class, I mumbled something to her something along the lines of "All I can hear is country music." She told me later that she was quite perplexed at this statement, because there was no music playing. But, I often do not make any sense when I first wake up, and also talk a lot in my sleep (this is something my future husband should be looking forward to), so it could have been either.
However, what I meant was this song was repeating itself over and over and over again in my head and it was driving me crazy.
Country music, and country music stations, haunt me.
Question
How much money would it take for you to wear a neon green fanny pack around for the rest of your life? You would not be able to tell anyone you were paid to wear it, and it would be a one time payment in American dollars.
- from whattorent.com, found via gidgeflibbit.
It would take a whole more than the thousand bucks they suggest as the highest amount to get me to wear a neon green fanny pack around for the rest of my life. Fanny packs are nasty.
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Anywhere But Here
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
- Matthew 6:25-34
So often I find myself thinking I'd rather be anywhere but here.
But of all the things I've learned in life the one I know to be most true is that following God's road and God's plan is much better than trying to follow your own.
Is it illegal for me to post this?
"This e-mail may contain confidential and privileged proprietary material for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any review, use, or distribution or disclosure by others is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, or authorized to receive the information from the recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and delete all copies of this message."
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
Quote
"But nothing much comes in life unless you are willing to follow your heart and be vulnerable."
- Real Live Preacher, via Benediction Blogs On
Monday, February 09, 2004
Sunrays
Looking into the future, I want to see a home with cozy sheets and a comfy bed, plush bathroom mats, fun lamps, retro dishware, flip flops by the door, paintings and photography on the wall, and love overflowing my full cup.
I want to listen to the music that I love over and over. I want to come home and find messages for me on the answering machine, and I want to answer the next call and have it be for me, someone I love on the other end.
I want to look outside the window and see rain running down the pane and have sunrays wake me in the morning. I want to dine in the evening beside a setting sun that never ceases to amaze me.
I want to fall asleep by the flicker of candlelight, all the while anticipating the gloriousness of morning.
I want to wake in the morning to a sweet aroma that I never tire of. I want to be inspired by my surroundings.
I want to live a life loving and being loved in return. I want to build stronger friendships and relationships out of ones of old and ones of new.
I want to find joy in all the little things of my life, from the view from my front door to the smile of my local grocer.
Maybe I want too much. But, I don't want to do any of these things alone. There must be someone else who wants them too.
Random List
It's been awhile since I've done a random list:
1. I'm famous.
2. I married Denzel Washington in my dream last night.
3. Denzel gave me a gold engagement right with D*A*D (the "*"s were diamonds) that he already had. I told him it was very original and I liked it.
4. A quote for you all: "So, I have this problem. I had a dream that I made tuna out of kittens and it keeps disturbing me." -Jodi Chambers.
5. The email address I recently abandoned is at 58% capacity now, with 529 unread messages in the inbox. I figure another week and the spam will have it maxed out.
6. The weather is warming up. It's supposed to be +3 Celcius on Wednesday. Do you have any idea how exciting that is? I can wear just one pair of mitts instead of two doubled up!
Friday, February 06, 2004
Nomad
"Also, I would like to point out right now that your life is quite possibly the most random of any individual I know."
Just right now?
The longest I have ever lived in a single place was eight years, between the ages of ten and nineteen. It was on a farm near a little French town in southern Manitoba. Before that I had moved three times. However, since March 1997, I have lived in 8 different provinces and states.
When I was a kid, I loved moving. Moving meant a whole new chance to:
a) perhaps get your own room
b) get a whole new set of friends who could potentially be cooler than your last set of friends
and
c) maybe, just maybe, end up having that perfect life like Jessica and Elizabeth had in Sweet Valley Twins.
My family moved after I finished high school, and they've been in the same place ever since, almost for the past seven years now. Well, my parents have stayed in the same place. The children they bore have all since moved on and around and around again.
I've been to college in Ontario and Saskatchewan. I've had jobs in Maine, Illinois, the Yukon, and Ontario. I've travelled 101 hours by bus (straight), been to Manhattan Island, flown sixteen times, been up the CN Tower, been to the Art Institute of Chicago, been to Maine's Shakespearean Theater, stayed in Whitehorse, seen a Cardinals game in St. Louis, and have even been stung by a jellyfish in Corpus Christi, Texas.
I have been many awesome places, seen many interesting things, done a lot, and met many many great people.
But I'm still searching for a place to call home.
Tuesday, February 03, 2004
3 x 5
Last night I was reading a wedding magazine with my roommates. Now, I promised myself very long ago that I would never actually buy a wedding magazine until I am engaged. That, however, does not mean that I have not gazed at many a wedding magazine. When you once lived in dorm with 64 other females for 3 and a half years, you can't possibly escape having never looked at a wedding magazine. And every girl spends gads of time thinking about/planning her wedding. And, living with someone who is planning on getting married in July means we have quite a few wedding magazines around. Even "Brides Noir," the wedding magazine "for the bride of colour."
Anyway, as I was reading this magazine, there were all these sample "real life" wedding budgets, and in them, I happened to notice that a huge chunk of these budgets go to wedding photographers. Like $3000 US. Doing quick math in my head, I realize that's $4500 Canadian! That's crazy cash! Sure the photographer has to print and develop all the photos, but still, they've gotta be making a pretty penny by the end of the day.
I take photographs all the time. I've taken wedding photos before. At my sister's wedding. They turned out fairly well. And I didn't get paid anything!
Why am I not taking wedding photographs for a living? How do you get started in such a business anyways? Seriously, I think it would be an awesome job. Fun too. Except for the super duper picky brides. And mother-in-laws. Hmm... most brides and mother-in-laws are picky, from what I've heard.
Maybe wedding photography isn't the best way to go. Maybe dog photography. Dogs aren't picky. They'll eat socks if you let them. Do you suppose they care what their photos look like? They're owners already think they're the most adorable things on earth anyways. Is there any money in professional dog photography?
Monday, February 02, 2004
Visited
I've been to all the states in red.
Create your own visited states map here.
My first trip to the grand ol' U.S. of A was at the tender age of three when my Mom, Gramma, older sister, and I went to visit my aunt in Minneapolis. We were living in Saskatchewan at the time, and went via Manitoba and North Dakota. I have very vivid memories of that trip... sleeping in a parking lot at the Big M Stampede in Morris, Manitoba, because all of the hotels were full… being woken up in the morning by a cowboy who asked if my Mom or Gramma was awake.
My second trip to the U.S. also involved North Dakota. My aunt was visiting us when I was about 10, we were actually living near the aforementioned town of Morris, and she decided to take us kids for a big trip to the U.S. to get ice cream. We went to the first town over the border. Only, they didn't have any ice cream. So we had Mountain Dew instead.
After that, my trips to the U.S. got a little more exciting, our family drove through North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington on our way to British Columbia a couple of times. Then after the eleventh grade I went to Oregon with my youth group, and saw the ocean for the first time.
Four years later, in 1999, I got a job working in Maine for the summer at a private girls' camp. I took the bus from Alberta to Maine, via Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. 99 hours. I met up with another girl in Calgary, she was going to be working at the same camp, but we had never met. I wouldn't recommend anyone else spend 99 hours busing anywhere.
Two years after that, in summer 2001, I got another job in the US, being a youth intern at a church in southern Illinois. While I was there, I participated in a mission trip to Mexico, and we drove there via Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas, and then returned via Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Missouri.
I figured out a couple of weeks ago that I've actually been on Manhattan Island, I found the Port Authority Bus Terminal on a map. I really didn't have any idea as to where I had been in New York, although I did know that I had seen Central Park. I really don't have much recollection of where I have been in terms of the little cities, but I do remember the bigger ones.
And, that's the story of where I've been.
Miles Away
You know, part of the cool part about going to a school where everyone is from some other province or state, and also part of the cool part of working in odd places all over the continent, is the fact that you end up with friends all over.
But also, the sucky part about going to such a school and working in such places is the fact that you end up with friends all over.
I used to be a voracious keeper-in-toucher, but I have found that as time goes on, and I come to know more and more people, I’m not quite so good at it. Sometimes I realize that although I'd like to, I'm never going to see some of these people ever again. So, my motivation for keeping in touch diminishes when there is no promise of future real life contact, or any contact for that matter (i.e. letters, email, telephone calls, msn chats of substance, and currently-uninvented-modes-of-communication).
Recently, I heard of someone lamenting, "How come none of my roommates never keep in touch with me?" I think that keeping in touch has to be very much reciprocal... or else keeping in touch dies. People aren't going to keep in touch with you if you make no effort to keep in touch with them. Duh.
I had some awesome chats and emails this weekend.
Anyways, what I think the point of this post was when I started it is that I seriously have some of the bestest friends ever and I wish that they all lived in the same place so I could see all of them all of the time. But would that be too much of a good thing?
While absence does sometimes make the heart grow fonder, communication is vital.
Official Announcement
I am abandoning the email address mikao@briercrest. com due to ever increasing amounts of spam, and the fact that I basically never get any real emails on it and it takes too much time to go and sort through all the poopy spam every day and the emotional turmoil of realizing that out of 111 emails none are really actually for me, rather they are for some poor sucker who really thinks that by somehow enlarging something his/her life will get better and everything will be okay.
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